SAN FRANCISCO, June 02, (THEWILL) – The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) has endorsed the move by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and any other law enforcement agency to investigate the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki.
It made this known as it responded to the suit filed by Saraki to stop his probe by the EFCC declaring that the acquittal of the Senate President in previous criminal cases could not stop him from being charged with another offence.
The AGF, the Inspector-General of Police, the Department of State Service, the EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission and the Code of Conduct Bureau are the respondents to the suit.
Saraki had contended in the suit before Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja that the interim seizure of his houses by the EFCC, as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, was a violation of his rights saying the investigation was on the same subject for which he had been previously tried and exonerated.
In a counter-affidavit, opposing Saraki’s suit, the AGF office stated, “That the suit FHC/ABJ/CS/152/2014 referred to by the applicant is premised on non-declaration of assets and the trial was conducted in the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
“That he knows as a fact by virtue of his training as a legal practitioner that a previous trial in the Code of Conduct Tribunal does not preclude further criminal trial in a competent court of law.”
Regarding Saraki’s complaint of being a subject of persecution, the AGF office denied being part of any plot by the EFCC or any of the respondents to carry out any act of “a witch-hunt, vendetta, revenge or persecution” against Saraki on the whims of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
It added that the discretion to initiate a criminal investigation against any person was a constitutional power of the second to the sixth respondents.
Justice Taiwo has fixed June 24 for the hearing.
